Using Instagram To Help You With SEO

Instagram, as well as other social networks, is an excellent place to boost traffic to your website, and consequently improve your SEO. Since it is visually oriented platform, Instagram is more suited for businesses that have interesting products for display. However, more and more business whose production and/or service have not been visually documented before have started to use Instagram for promotion.

If you’re still on fence about Instagram, take into account that more than 50 million photos are being uploaded on it every day. Thousands of people share and discuss photos and generate enormous quantity of traffic. To join this vivid network means to make your brand visible to numerous potential customers. Here are some tips on how to promote your brand on Instagram and how to use Instagram to boost your SEO.

Pay Attention to your Brand Profile

Your profile on Instagram is your main presentation there and the first impression you will make on most Instagram users. Therefore, it has to count. Include your brand’s visual identity, such as logo, in your Instagram profile and provide enough information. Most people won’t visit your website immediately after they visit your Instagram profile – they will spend some time getting to know you. If you post engaging and interesting content, they will eventually want to find out more.

Don’t Forget Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to ensure your photos are seen by more than just your immediate followers. In this way, everyone who searches your hashtags can discover your brand’s profile. This is especially true if you use hashtags that are trending. But be weary, hashtags must be relevant to the content you are posting. If you start using unrelated hashtags just because they are popular and generate traffic, you will start losing followers. However, you can always adjust your content in order to incorporate some of the popular hashtags and use the current trends for your promotion.

Many SEO experts advise Instagram users to create their own unique hashtags. In this way you will be able to easily track your content and its reach.

When it comes to number of hashtags, try not to go overboard. With too many hashtags you will lose focus, and your content may be displayed to people who are not interested in your brand. Keep the number of hashtags between 2 and 5.

The last piece of advice regarding hashtags is to be up-to-date. Since there is no tool that tracks popular hashtags for each sector, you’ll have to invest some time and effort into this and find out yourselves. Keep track on hashtags that are used in your industry and pay attention to any changes in trends.

Link Your Other Social Media Profiles to Instagram

If you have profiles on other social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter, don’t forget to link them to your Instagram profile. In this way, when you post something on Instagram, it will automatically be posted on Facebook and Twitter, and vice versa. Therefore, traffic generated by your individual social network profiles can be boosted by other with just one click.

Create Engaging Events

Instagram is great place to start a photo competition. This is a common tool used in marketing to rekindle discussion about a topic or a brand. Be sure to announce competition in advance and use hashtags to ensure the news about competition disseminates as quickly as possible. Also, make sure people who want to participate in competition like your profile and use your hashtags. In this way, they will promote your brand practically for free. However, you should make this worthwhile. Never organize a competition if you’re not willing to offer prizes for winners. These can be your new product or free service (like a free haircut or monthly membership in your gym). The impact this contest creates will, in most cases, greatly surpass the value of prizes.

Embed Instagram Content in Your Website

In order to boost your website’s SEO, you should add engagement triggers on your web page by using content you upload to your Instagram profile. You can do this when announcing winners for the above mentioned contest. The likes and shares you get on these photos and videos will directly affect your SEO. The process is relatively simple:

· Click on the post on your Instagram profile you wish to embed.

· Click the ‘…’ symbol located in the bottom-right corner and choose ‘Embed’.

· This will display the embed code you need to paste in your website’s HTML.

Networking is Important

Try to connect with similar businesses, or at least businesses that are in some way related to yours. Sometimes the best support comes from your colleagues across the world. Furthermore, you can organise an initiative and help the community or support a local NGO. This will generate more traffic and raise your brand’s awareness. Just make sure to pick the right partners.

Conclusion

As you can see, you can conquer new digital spaces for your brand with little creativity and time. The most important thing, like with other social networks, is to keep the profile alive and provide relevant and interesting content.

Author bio: Sam Cyrus is CEO and co-founder of http://agseosydney.com.au, an innovative online marketing agency based in Sydney which is focused on Digital Marketing. Sam is also a creative writer and his interests are entrepreneurship, business, online marketing, SEO and social media.

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Sam Cyrus is CEO and co-founder of http://agseosydney.com.au, an innovative online marketing agency based in Sydney which is focused on Digital Marketing. Sam is also a creative writer and his interests are entrepreneurship, business, online marketing, SEO and social media. He currently advises companies about PHP Development in Sydney.

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